Wheatgrowers to get some of royalties

Press, 15 August 1980, Page 8

Wheatgrowers to get some of royalties

Farmers are going to get part of the royalties collected on Governmentbred varieties of wheat, which have qualified for plant selectors’ or breeders’ rights. This was confirmed this week by the chairman of the wheatgrowers’ sub-sec-tion of Federated Farmers, Mr A. L. Mulholland, after the chairman of the Dominion agriculture section of the federation, Mr N. Q. Wright, had referred to it at a function in Christchurch last week. Mr Mulholland said that the agreement with the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research provided that the wheatgrowers’ sub-section would receive 40 per cent of the Crown part of the

royalty, which was about 40 per cent of the total. The balance went to the head licensee to cover administration, promotion, distribution and development. Mr Mulholland said that growers were already paying a levy equivalent to about 18c per tonne on wheat for research on new varieties etc. and without this arrangement it would mean that they would be paying twice.

At present the amount received would be fairly small with only Oroua and Rongotea being covered by the rights, but as these varieties grew in importance and other varieties came along- this amount could grow and the retiirns could also be boost-

ed by overseas demand for newer New Zealand-bred and selected varieties in particularly the Mediterranean area in countries like Algeria. It was estimated that by 1985-86 what growers would receive from this source could run into several tens of thousands of dollars.

Mr Wright said that an important principle had been achieved for the industry and wheat growers would have a chance to use this money for further research and/or promotion in the industry. “I believe that the time has come for farmers to take an even greater part in the promotion of their industry and we now have the funds to achieve some of these aims.”